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When Kritika Kamra stepped out for her wedding reception in March earlier this, she did something that felt quintessentially Galliano: she looked to the past to create a pretty modern fashion moment. The actor chose an archival John Galliano-era Dior gown from the Spring/Summer 2004 collection for her reception, a fluid, bias-cut silhouette that she had spent two months searching for.
Kamra’s choice also arrived at an interesting moment for the British designer. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute has announced John Galliano: Horizons as its theme for Met Gala 2027. The theme will honour the designer’s career from his 1984 Central Saint Martins graduate collection through his transformative years at Givenchy, Dior and Maison Margiela. The exhibition will also confront the more complicated chapters of his career, including his 2011 dismissal from Dior and the events that led to it.
For a designer whose work has always been about contemporary storytelling, the Galliano bride has always stood out. His wedding gowns have rarely been about simply looking beautiful. They have been about inhabiting a character: the 1930s screen siren, the punk bride, the historical romantic, the modernist muse. Even when the silhouettes are traditional, there is usually something slightly unexpected in the cut, construction, colour or styling.
Over the years, Galliano has given us brides in corseted silk, hand-sprayed colour, tulle, lace and even mirrored fragments. Some were real brides, some were runway creations and then there also was Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City who became a fictional bride whose fashion choices have lived on far beyond the film. Together, they reveal why the idea of the Galliano bride continues to resonate.
If there is one dress that defines the Galliano bride, it is the gown Kate Moss wore to marry Jamie Hince in July 2011.
The dress arrived at a particularly eventful point in Galliano’s career. Following his departure from Dior earlier that year, Moss, a longtime friend, commissioned him to create her wedding gown. Moss wanted a “classic Galliano” with the chiffon, 1930s-inspired quality she had worn throughout their years of friendship and collaboration. The result was a gown with a bias-draped silhouette, combining an opaque bodice with a translucent, embroidered skirt. A vintage-inspired veil added a touch of Gatsby-era glamour.
The dress also became part of Galliano’s own story. He later described creating it as his “creative rehab”, making the commission much more than a celebrity wedding dress. It marked the beginning of his return to fashion after his departure from Dior.
Before pink wedding dresses became a familiar sight on celebrity brides, Gwen Stefani was already making a case for breaking the rules.
For her 2002 wedding to Gavin Rossdale, Stefani wore John Galliano for Christian Dior. The corseted, full-skirted gown began in an ivory tone before dissolving into a vivid magenta-pink hem through a hand-sprayed ombré effect. A small bow accentuated the bodice, while an antique lace veil completed the look.
Stefani loved it so much that she wore the same gown for both her London and Los Angeles ceremonies.
Galliano’s bridal legacy even extends to a bride in the movies. In Sex and the City: The Movie, Carrie Bradshaw’s fashion choices for her aborted wedding to Mr Big were quintessentially Carrie: romantic, fashion-obsessed and unconventional. Among them was a vintage-inspired Galliano look worn for the couple’s planned courthouse ceremony, a skirt suit from Galliano’s collection.
It was a more subtle rendition of the Galliano aesthetic than Moss or Stefani’s gowns, but perhaps an equally important one. The suit offered a more polished definition of bridal glamour, something like the Schiaparelli skirt-suit that Dua Lipa wore to her civil ceremony in London.
For heiress, artist and model Ivy Getty’s 2021 wedding to photographer Tobias Engel, Galliano created a custom Maison Margiela gown made up of four layers. Beneath the surface was a nude-toned corset, followed by white tulle, before the final layer introduced fragments of mirrored material.
The designer actually engineered the mirror-like material to be light enough for Getty to walk in, with the fragments connected like jewellery. The result was a mix of bridal tradition and Maison Margiela deconstruction.
Which brings us back to Kritika Kamra.
For her March wedding to Gaurav Kapur, the actor chose an archival Dior gown from Galliano’s Spring/Summer 2004 era for her reception look. The dove-grey, bias-cut dress was fluid and understated, with a draped neckline and softly gathered waist.
There was something noteworthy about Kamra choosing a piece from Galliano’s archive at a time when archival fashion has become an important part of bridal dressing. Rather than commissioning a new gown designed to look contemporary, she chose something with a history already embedded in it.
Kamra’s choice also gave the Galliano bride a distinctly Indian chapter. Her wedding wardrobe moved between a red Chanderi sari from her mother’s label, Cinnabar, for the ceremony and archival Dior for the reception, bringing together Indian heritage and fashion history. Her Galliano look was not about picking something from the past; it was about finding a piece from it that still felt like her.